On Hiatus
We’re taking a bit of a break from the games website. We’ll be back soon, but while you’re waiting, check out our other content on the main website and Creative blog.
OnLive: The Future of Gaming?
Heard about this cool OnLive system? If you haven’t, you’re potentially short information on the future of gaming. For years, PC gaming has been a mess. Xfire was among the first pioneers in the attempt to consolidate PC gamers. It’s slowly evolved into Valve’s Steam service, which is just a distribution service with a feeble attempt at unification. Now, OnLive has burst on the scene potentially changing this overnight.
OnLive is a system designed to allow people to play games on a PC, Mac, or on their TV with each other. That’s not even the best part, however. The best part is that all these games are delivered via the cloud- no downloading required. In the demo below, Steve Perlman (WebTV and QuickTime brain) seamlessly switched from a game of Crysis: Warhead to Lego Batman simply by going back to the home screen and clicking on the game. Not swapping discs, not downloading the entire game, but simply by clicking on it. Also cool about the demonstration was the ability to view a friends’ game live as they see it from the interface. The demonstration team also showed these features on a MacBook and dedicated box connected to the TV, in addition to the Dell Studio 15 laptop. Really, really cool.
Free Zombies for All!
Previous style points added to the Valve stock with Gabe Newell’s recent DRM-bashing commentary have now been added to by the company’s latest announcement: free DLC for Left 4 Dead! Not only for PC users, the Turtle Rock game update will include two new campaigns and a whole new survival mode. As a L4D player myself, I can only say thank goodness. The four campaigns are excellent, but with no variation, they do get a bit repetitive and dull after hours on end. Unlike Team Fortress 2, where there is a massive multiplayer versus emphasis, the campaign is at the core of the Left 4 Dead experience. The report on survival mode is very similar to that of Gears of War 2’s horde mode, where the four players try to stay alive for as long as possible whilst being stormed upon by the mindless zombies. Valve has not announced an official release for the DLC.
Xbox: HDMI Audio Fix, Halo Wars Demo Out
The Microsoft team has finally addressed an issue which had been bugging a plethora of users following the New Xbox Experience launch at the end of last year. All Xbox Live members have been forced to install the update, which Major Nelson says will fix the HDMI audio. Users had complained about audio being delivered via HDMI not working after the update. This update was required to use Xbox Live across all regions.
Additionally, the much anticipated Halo Wars demo was unleashed a few days ago on the Xbox Live Marketplace.
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Sony Profit Down 95%, PS3 Falls Back in Next Gen Race
Consumer electronics giant Sony is perhaps the ‘perfect company’ to show the impacts of the global recession. Today they announced that yearly profits fell $2.09 billion, from $2.2 billion to $110 million. The hardest hit sector was its biggest- consumer electronics, which saw 30 percent of its sales evaporate in the toughening economic climate. The company said sales in its gaming sector, which includes the PlayStation 3 and Sony Consumer Entertainment America (SCEA) divisions, was down 32% in 2008. Fierce competition from Microsoft and Nintendo weakened the PS3’s performance in the holiday. According to Gamespot, the current tally puts the latest PlayStation at 21.3 million, nearly seven million less than the Xbox (28 million) and less than half the number of Nintendo’s Wii (45 million). This is likely due to the tightening of Japanese wallets, which is one of Sony’s largest regions against the Xbox. Shares of SNE on the NYSE were down 3% today to 20.27.
[CNN] Sony profits fall 95 percent
First Look at Resident Evil 5 Collector’s Edition
Recently, Capcom revealed their Collector’s Edition for Resident Evil 5 with all of it’s contents. As if you didn’t have a good enough reason to get this highly anticipated game. If you have $90 to spend on this glorious box, then my friend take the chance and pre-order this sucker now. Hit the break for more detail.
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A Formal Letter to Nintendo
To whom it may concern within Nintendo Inc.
I, Dennis Scally, am writing you this letter to express my unhappiness and disappointment with the change in your target market over the last three years. Please understand that I wish no wrong to you as I have been an endearing fan for the greater part of fifteen years. I only wish to explain why I am no longer going to purchase any of your products.
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Year Old Halo 3 Most Played Xbox Live Game; Forza 3 Images Leaked
Despite the great games that came out for the Xbox platform this year, gamers continued to play Bungie’s FPS more than any other game, including Rockstar’s latest edition and Epic Games’ rather disappointing sequel to a still popular Gears of War. Major Nelson posted the stats on his Inside Xbox blog a few days ago, and there are a few other nuggets to be pulled out of the data.
11.5 Million WoW Members Think They Are Gamers
According to a report from Gamespot, Blizzard’s World of Warcraft MMORPG has a subscriber base of 11.5 million. Unfortunately, many envision WoW as the epitome of PC gaming. Steam has a member base of 15 million. While we’re not going to play “my number is bigger than your number,” World of Warcraft has much more exposure to the mainstream press than any Steam game I’ve seen. The local newspaper even had a few articles about the launch of the latest expansion.
PC gaming is so much more than that. While there certainly are excellent first person shooters, puzzle games, and strategy games, all of which excel on the PC due to the keyboard. Stereotypes can kill a genre. With PC developers threatening to shut their doors to volatile market conditions as well as piracy, a public ignorant of their games will only increase the number of twats that proclaim the end of PC gaming.
EA Games: Powered by Steam
Seems that EA has seen the error of its ways and has decided to convert all of its future games, plus some current ones, to the very popular Steam network.
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